Pretty sure I still haven't had "the birds and the bees" chat with my parents. All I can recall is my mom saying if my sis and I were ever thinking about it... to come talk to her first... but I digress.

My foster sister actually grew up with a "traditional" family. She was more or less a prisoner in the house. Sometime in her early to mid twenties she finally got enough courage to run away and seek help. At the time, she had six or seven brothers and sisters. Not sure if that number has increased because her parents disappeared not too long after they were deemed "fit" to get their kids back from CPS. The oldest son was pretty well brainwashed, the next three were old enough to move away, but the youngest weren't so lucky (ages were from about two years old to late twenties.) I'm not going to type up her entire story here, but even as a single anecdote, it flies in the face of the traditional family argument.

There is no 100% guarantee that just because a family is one way or another that the children will end up the same. But I guess it's okay to have a double standard ("there are exceptions with traditional families, but not with non-traditional ones!"), so long as the status quo is maintained...

I have been pretty open about it with my oldest. He's also not dumb, and can do math. He became eligible to get his permit (15 and 1/2) on 9/5.

I turned 33 on 9/18. His mom will turn 33 in December.

I'm also not dumb, and I know what I did as a teen. I was an idiot. I told him that I don't expect he is going to be a chaste virgin until he's out of college, and find some girl, who is also just as chaste as himself. But, I've tried as hard as I can to make sure that he is at least smart about it. Understanding the importance of both the emotional / psychological side of it, and how to stay healthy, and not a daddy.

I'm not saying that my lack of a sex talk is to blame either. I will say that everything coming down to "DON'T! OR YOU'LL GO TO HELL!" certainly didn't help, and it surely pissed me (and my sister) off. It was almost a competition at times to see who could "Go to HELL!" faster.

I'm pretty sure I won that contest.

But I digress, I think that making sure your kids aren't oblivious is important. That goes for Sex, Puberty, Race, Culture, etc... Don't rely on the interwebz and the tv to teach them and then be surprised when they do dumb shit.

Malthrax wrote:What, you've never heard the expression, "nutty as a fruitcake" before?

Yes. I've heard the expression. And I've also heard of people using Fruitcake as a term for Homosexuals (most often men). In light of all the bad press that they have had recently, if that is a new sign, you would think that someone would have told them it was a bad idea.

He was a WoW player. He has two kids now and quit in early Cataclysm, but he played a troll rogue named Loate.

Despite that, he is still an active gamer, and tweets about it frequently (his tag is still @ChrisWarcraft). His post-game tweets are especially fantastic.

Even with the lack of super bowl history, I love being a Vikings fan because of Kluwe. I'm seriously considering buying a custom jersey with his name on the back because of his outspokenness regarding gay marriage.

English Homophobe in 2 tweets wrote:So Messrs Black & Morgan, at [ADDRESS REMOVED BY SHOJU]. A British Justice team will come up to Huntington & give you a . . .bit of drama by way of reminding you that an English couple's home is their castle. Say No to heterophobia!

He then (as my Screenshot will show) went on to spew at Muslims in the process.

Man... This guy is awful. I don't know about England, but here in the US, this could be considered a crime.